Читать книгу Japanese Children's Favorite Stories Book Two - Florence Sakade - Страница 11

The Robe or Feathers

Once there was a fisherman who lived all alone on a tiny island in Japan. He was very poor and very lonely. Early one morning he started toward his boat; there had been a bad storm the night before, but now the sun was shining brightly. As he walked along, he saw something hanging on a branch of one of the pine trees along the beach. It was beautiful and shining. He took it down from the branch and found that it was a wonderful robe made of feathers. The feathers were of all different colors, as lovely and soft as the rainbow, and they shined and sparkled in the sunlight like jewels. It was the most beautiful thing the fisherman had ever seen in all his life.

"Oh, what a beautiful robe!" he said. "It's certainly a priceless treasure. There's no one else on my island so it can't belong to anyone. I'll take it home and keep it always. Then my poor home will be beautiful and I can look at the robe whenever I'm lonely." Holding the robe very carefully in his rough hands, he turned and started to carry it home.

Just then a beautiful woman came running after him. "Mr. Fisherman, Mr. Fisherman," she called, "that's my robe of feathers that you're taking away. Please give it back to me." She went on to explain that she was an angel from heaven and that the robe of feathers was actually her wings. While she was flying through the sky, the storm had come and wet her wings so that she could not fly. So she had waited on this island until the sun came out and then had hung her wings out to dry on a pine tree, where the fisherman had found them.

"So you see," she finished, "if you don't give my wings back to me I'll never be able to fly back to my home in heaven again." Then the woman began to weep.

The fisherman felt very sad for her. "Please don't cry," he said. "Of course I'll give you your robe of feathers. If I'd known it belonged to anyone, I would never have touched it." And he knelt down before her and handed her the robe.

The angel began at last to smile and her face was shining with happiness. "Oh, thank you very much, Mr. Fisherman." she said. "You're such a good man that I'm going to dance the angel's dance for you."